These are exciting yet challenging times for Dartmouth Medical School (DMS), as we strive to recruit and nurture junior-level faculty to thrive in and perpetuate Dartmouth's rich tradition of excellence in biomedical research and education. The financial exigency that has adversely affected DMS since October of 2008 prompted suspension of faculty recruitments for an indeterminate length of time, including an ongoing search in the Department of Physiology to recruit a tenure-track Assistant Professor in neurophysiology. Thus, the Department views the current P30 application in response to RFA-OD-09-005 as an opportunity to re-engage the stalled faculty recruitment, not only to ensure a smooth generational transition of the academic missions within the Department, but also to strengthen its ties with neuroscience research endeavors in other components of DMS and the Dartmouth scientific community at-large. The Department of Physiology is strategically positioned to capitalize on the present ARRA initiative. We have a restricted endowed fund specifically earmarked for Physiology faculty development. While this fund is by itself insufficient for a complete faculty recruitment package, it is sufficient to provide for the two additional years of support stipulated in RFA-09-005. We propose to: (1) Recruit a tenure-track Assistant Professor into the Department of Physiology and the Physiology-based Core Center who is a systems neurosclentist with research interests that will provide an integrative understanding of normal nervous system function and brain disease mechanisms. The recruit's primary appointment will be in Physiology;cross appointment will be in the Department of Neurology or Psychiatry. (2) Foster the launching and development of the new junior faculty member's research program. (3) Mentor to help advance the academic career and retain the new faculty member at Dartmouth. An existing core of established multidisciplinary faculty investigators enhances each other's research and share research interests in gaining an integrative understanding of the development, structure and function of channels and neural circuit connectivity as they relate to neurological and/or mental disease states. The members of this Core Center collectively have substantial experience developing careers of Assistant Professors and form a strong base to expand the infrastructure and to recruit a system neurosclentist who will be integral to the sustainability of a nationally-competitive, neurological disorders-related research enterprise at Dartmouth. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The Department of Physiology at Dartmouth Medical School requests funding under the aegis of RFA- 09-005 to recruit a new tenure-track Assistant Professor faculty member. The individual will be a systems neurosclentist with research interest in investigating neural circuit function as they relate to neurological and/or mental disease states. The addition of such a new faculty member will be integral to the sustainability of a nationally-competitive, neurological disorders-related research enterprise at Dartmouth.